Ganglion cell complex thickness in nonexudative age-related macular degeneration

Abstract

Purpose To evaluate ganglion cell complex(GCC) thickness with spectral domain opticalcoherence tomography (SD-OCT) in eyes withnonexudative age-related maculardegeneration (NEAMD).Methods Forty-seven eyes of 28 patientswith nonexudative age-related maculardegeneration (NEAMD) and 54 eyes of 28age-matched healthy subjects were enrolled.Each subject underwent a completeophthalmic examination before SD-OCT wereobtained. Macular scans were taken withsoftware version 6.0 of the ganglion cellanalysis (GCA) algorithm. GCC thickness wasevaluated automatically as the average,minimum, temporal superior, superior, nasalsuperior, nasal inferior, inferior, andtemporal-inferior segments by SD-OCT andparameters were compared between groups.Results The mean age was 68.7±8.73 yearsin patient group, and 61.51±5.66 years incontrol group. There were no significantdifferences in mean age, gender distribution,intraocular pressure, and sferic equivalent atimaging between the groups (P40.05). Themean (±SD) GCC thicknesses were asfollows; average 71.53±16.53 µm, minumum62.36±21.51 µm, temporal superior72.23±14.60 µm, superior 72.76±20.40 µm,nasal superior 72.31±20.13 µm, nasal inferior69.74±20.51 µm, inferior 69.38±19.03 µm, andtemporal-inferior 73.12±15.44 µm in patientgroup. Corresponding values in control groupwere 81.46±4.90 µm, 78.66±6.00 µm,81.51±4.66 µm, 82.94±5.14 µm,81.79±5.86 µm, 80.94±6.18 µm,80.14±6.30 µm, and 81.75±5.26 µm,respectively. There were significantdifferences between two groups in eachsegments (Mann–Whitney U-test, Po0.05).Conclusion The average GCC thicknessvalues (in all segments) of NEAMD patients were lower than control group. NEAMD,which is considered as a disease of outerlayers of retina, may be accompanied witha decrease of ganglion cell thickness, so innerlayers of retina may be affected.